Author of three books. This blog not very active so follow on Twitter: @gary_weiss

Friday, March 02, 2007

Closing the NovaStar Barn Door

NFI-info.net in happier days

There's an old expression, "closing the barn door after the cows have left." That same principle was applied today to the "nfi-info.net" website, which was created by naked-shorting fruitcake Phil Saunders (a/k/a "Bob O'Brien) to pump the doggie subprime lender NovaStar Financial.

NovaStar's shares have collapsed over the past couple of weeks, leaving egg over Saunders's face as the No. 1 pumper of NovaStar shares. NFI-Info.net hacked away at the crackpot theory that NovaStar was a victim of "stock counterfeiting" or "naked short-selling," and not its own doggy fundamentals. It was festooned with such nonsense, as was the NovaStar Investor Village message board.

Saunders was pumping away with drivel like this right up to the moment NovaStar fell off a cliff. The one I just linked, posted a few days before the disaster, was typical: "Is there any reason in the fundamentals to doubt the company paying $5.60 this year? Nope. Next year? Nope. Has there been any reason to doubt their ability for the last 4 years? Nope. History has shown that all the big drops were NOT based in any fundamental problem. Not once. It has always been based upon FUD distributed via media campaigns, class action suits, analysts, and message boards. Always. As in every single time to date."

So now, applying the "belated closing of barn door" principle, Saunders's NFI-Info.net has been shut after the naive investors have been fleeced. Today if you clicked on the NFI-info.net link, you got a black screen with "nfi-info.net" in small type.

Before it was shut I saved NFI-Info.net's pumping for posterity, and I am sure that regulators and class-action lawyers have as well.

People interested in the same MAD Magazine approach to the stock market (albeit meant to be taken seriously) should log on to Saunders's other website, ironically called "thesanitycheck.com." It's been a bit lame recently, and its audience has dribbled off. I wonder when that one goes black?

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About Me

I'm a journalist and author. My latest book is AYN RAND NATION: The Hidden Struggle for America's Soul (St. Martin's Press: Feb. 28, 2012). My previous books were Wall Street Versus America (Portfolio: 2006) and Born to Steal (Warner Books: 2003). I was an investigative reporter and Wall Street writer for BusinessWeek, a contributing editor at Condé Nast Portfolio, and have written for the Daily Beast, Parade magazine, Salon, The Street.com, Fortune.com, Barron's and many other publications. I was an adjunct professor at Columbia University's School of Journalism. Follow me on Twitter @gary_weiss Email: garyweiss dot email at gmail dot com